Check it out. How big does this look? I'm currently writing a story for the Independent around the history of soundsystem culture in the UK. Thus far, I've chatted to Goldie - who's still seething from the bantering (or disrespect as he's calling it) from the first Culture Clash in February - Don Letts (a total gent and super on the ball) and Soul Jazz Records. I do love my job.
So this Wednesday is Party4Pakistan, which as the title suggests is fundraiser for the victims of the floods in Pakistan. I've been disappointed, and discussed it at length with my nearest and dearest, by the lack of fundraisers organised in clubland - there were at least between 5 and 10 when the Haiti earthquake happened in January.
It's not just clubland either - there's deafening silence across the arts when it comes to raising money for those made destitute in the recent floods. Why? Is it the way the media reports Pakistan - hotbed of terrorism, unstable, corrupt and generally a failing state, disaster fatigue, mistrust of allocation of funds, or anti-Islamic? Who knows it's probably a combination of all of the above.
All I know is that these are people who are suffering, people like you and I, and for anyone that's South Asian, like it or not, these are your brothers and sisters. So please put your petty religious squabbles aside - like everyone performing whether Riz MC, Plan B, Bobby Friction or Nihal - has realised this is for people who are desperate.
Anyway enough of the sermonizing, here's an exclusive with Plan B talking about a bhangra remix of She Said:
And some audio from Fonejacker who makes his live debut on Wednesday.
And here's an amazing graphic of the flood affected area transposed onto the UK. In case anyone's forgotten, a fifth of the people in the world's sixth largest country are basically effed. Spread the word and tell a friend.
Big up Riz, Anealla and all involved in putting this on.
So I've been doing the Top 10 Clubs for The Independent for a few years now, and I suddenly thought I'd post what I've been doing on a week to week basis and give myself and the nights a bit of a plug.
This week is all about Party For Pakistan. Here's the flyer. Represent people, it's for a good cause and that's about as far as it goes. In other news the Habit warehouse party with Henrik Schwarz and the Rustie EP launch are looking tasty!
Party For Pakistan
September 29
A fundraiser for the floods in Pakistan starring rappers Riz MC and Plan B who will combine for a comedy take on Ant and Dec, as well as rising R&B/dancehall star Mumzy Stranger, and Radio 1’s Nihal and Bobby Friction
Islington O2 Academy, London
Bleep43
October 1
An electronica smorgasbord drawing on talent from all over the world including Detroit’s Urban Tribe and The Hague’s Legowelt, Dallas Convextion all performing live.
Corsica Studios, London
Sunburst EP Launch
October 1
Baby faced producer/DJ Rustie launches his debut Warp records release with a live performance of his juicy synth-funk meets sub bass and video game effects, with support from kaleidoscopic producer Harmonic 313 and dubstep house don Untold.
The CAMP, London
Counter Culture
October 1
A pop up club in London Bridge hosts Mumdance (Mad Decent)’s furiously kinetic global ghetto rhythms including Mexican guarachero, Baltimore gutter, Brazilian baile funk and beyond
7 to 9 Crucifix Lane, London
Plug’s 5th Birthday
September 25
Super d&b and dubstep producers Chase & Status count down to their new LP with a headline DJ set, with support from larger than life grime MC Tempa T, and future star, soulful rapper Maverick Sabre.
Plug, Sheffield
The Warehouse Project
September 25
The original pop up club space, returns for its tenth three month season with Eric Prydz’s big room house, Basement Jaxx’s Brixton house and Felix Da Housecat’s disco-influenced electro.
Underneath Piccadilly Train Station, Manchester
Bigger Than Barry
October 1
Jump up jungle from the genre’s pioneering producer/DJ Shy FX with support from Breakage, who’s fine Foundation LP traverses contemporary soundsystem culture (roots reggae, dubstep, grime, jungle, UK funky)
DQ Sheffield
Desolat vs Sci Tec
September 25
Epic undulating house courtesy of Deep Dish’s Dubfire, as Joy Orbison selects a dreamy blend of twostep, dubstep and house, and Loco Dice’s minimal house and techno.
HMV Institute, Birmingham
In Motion
October 1
A hip hop extravaganza featuring master blaster Krs One, Brit-rappers Rodney P, Yungun, and dazzling freestyle MC Supernatural.
Motion Skate Park, Bristol
Habit Warehouse Party
October 1
Deep, delicious soul-fused house and techno from Berlin’s grand piano playing maestro Henrick Schwarz
If I wasn't under the weather I'd definitely be going to Electric Minds and would love to check out James Blake, Ramadanman, Dark Star - each of these in their own right are absolutely brilliant. I'd be a little wary of XOYO coz it will be young, hipster central and I'd mainly feel old.
CLUBS XOYO + Electric Minds
London’s world-class clubbing scene appears to have taken a battering over recent years with the closure of iconic venues including The End, Turnmills, Canvas and The Cross, and Matter’s temporary shutdown. However, it’s simply the circle of (night) life, as London clubland is reinventing itself through smaller and agile (multipurpose) venues.
Take for example new 800-capacity Old Street ‘events space’ XOYO: upstairs can host live acts and arts events during the week, while the downstairs is also capable of hosting gigs, as well as club nights. The team behind it certainly has the brains and experience to push the raving experience forward: XOYO is the brainchild of Cymon Eckel (behind the cult 1990s fanzine, label and night Boys Own, and east London boozers The Griffin and The Britannia), Tom Baker (cutting edge promoters Eat Your Own Ears), Marcus Weedon (Field Day, Underage) and Johnno Burgess (Bugged Out! Jockey Slut).
Tomorrow sees Blogger’s Delight & Eat Your Own Ears take over XOYO with a glorious showcase of post-dubstep: Dark Star (Hyper Dub) who specialize in gothic, analogue dubtronica, perform live with DJ support from mellifluous melody maker James Blake, whose dub-house features gurgling r’n’b, and Ramadanman, who fluidly fuses dubstep, house, and techno with aplomb.
Electric Minds is an example of the kind edgy, underground nights that have sprung up as established venues have waned. Tomorrow the label and impromptu night continues its Loft Party series with a few hundred electronic music connoisseurs enjoying Innervision’s Marcus Worgull’s deep, blurry house and gliding percussive techno. Combined with a powerful Funktion 1 Soundsystem and intimate, unorthodox setting, it’s proof that London clubland is alive, kicking and screaming. Rahul Verma
Tomorrow, XOYO, 32-37 Cowper Street, 9pm to 3am, £9 adv. Tel. 020 7729 5959. www.xoyo.co.uk. Tube: Old Street
Tomorrow, Electric Minds, secret East London location, 10pm to 6am, £8 to £10. email info@electricminds.co.uk for details. Tube: Old Street
So I've been away on holiday in India - south India (Chennai, Bangalore, Andaman Islands) to be precise - then the West Country (Shropshire) and then France (Aubusson), hence the lack of bloggage. I'm back now and admittedly I've been slack in posting, but that's the point of a holiday, and easing back into things is one of the few joys of the post holiday comedown.
Now then, now then, as Jimmy Saville might say, as a journalist you get to witness and sample some pretty amazing stuff, albeit in a short, sharp, surface level, nevertheless I'm beyond grateful for some of weird and wonderful things I've seen, discovered and expanded my horizons with.
After 12 years in the words game, there's not a huge amount that leaves your jaw on the floor, but Animatronics is certainly one of them.
Heading up to the super talented and supremely approachable John Nolan's studios in Dalston to learn more about dancing robots in May had me frothing at the mouth and blubbering like an excited 8 year old to my friends. Unfortunately animatronics is one of those things you just have to see to believe.
Here's a glimpse of what they're about, and a feature I penned exploring how animatronics and 3D are redefining clubland, that ran in The Independent on Friday. Thanks to the rather splendid Celia for hooking up the interviews.
Future clubbing: Twenty-first century party people
Technology is infiltrating night life. Rahul Verma reports on the weird and wonderful animatronics and 3D effects that are turning clubs and festivals into sci-fi wonderlands
The heaving dancefloor sways to the DJ's metronomic patterns as people filter off to chat at the bar. As a thundering bass line kicks in, whoops and squeals of approval erupt, and a sea of hands rises in salutation. One hand stands apart from the crowd: it's shiny and metal, and belongs to a robot moving gracefully in time to the music.
Meanwhile, at a festival in a dome-shaped tent, cider-soaked revellers wearing Blues Brothers-style shades are gawping, dancing to wonky house and pointing, as new rave shapes, cityscapes and iconic film imagery, such as Superman's insignia, tumble towards them.
These aren't visions of clubbing from the future. These are two club nights, Kreatures and 3D Disco that exist in the present, and reflect how rapidly evolving technology is infiltrating and influencing clubbing, festivals and nightlife.
Kreatures, the night that brings dancing robots – or more specifically animatronics – into clubs, is the vision of the bright minds at John Nolan Films. Its Dalston workshop is a hive of focused activity: sparks fly and machinery grinds as five people beaver away to meet a deadline to provide a squirrel head that can enunciate Spanish words for a TV ad.
Welcome to the weird, wonderful and frankly flabbergasting world of animatronics. What are animatronics? "Animatronics is imitating the anatomy of a person or animal, through engineering or mechanics, and copying the movement and making it as fluid as possible," explains Gustav Hoegen.
In other words animatronics are lifelike puppets (the squirrel's fur is rabbit hair) made from robotics and mainly used in films, adverts or theme parks. John Nolan, whose animatronic work has appeared in films including Where The Wild Things Are, Skellig and Hellboy II, specialises in "skins" – faces, stomachs and mouths.
For Hoegen, Nolan and Josh Head, bringing their painstaking work into nightclubs is about showcasing what they do to a wider audience. "It's self-indulgent, as what I do is usually covered in foam latex and silicone skin so you don't get to see what goes into making a piece of metal look organic in the way it moves," says Nolan. Then Hoegen says: "The Kreatures night is an installation. I've always wanted to do something that shows off what goes into robotics and animatronics."
Where did the idea come from? "Gus and I met Josh when we were working on Where The Wild Things Are in Australia. Josh was dabbling in animatronic performances with a bear head he wore on stage. Gus and I built animatronic mouths for a night and used radio controllers to control their expressions. Josh's approach is revolutionary; no one else is doing it. He has put together a control for a robot with 16 or 30 motors which enable expressions rather than just moving an arm up", continues Nolan excitedly.
Head, who performs live as Ankle Pants, explains: "If it's one of John's mouths or faces you can get a smile or frown. As you drop a part of the track it will trigger an instant movement, and if you slow down or speed up the music the movement will mimic that. It's the equivalent of mixing electronic music and expressions."
Alongside a line-up of big-hitting electronic-music DJs including Starkey, Untold and Milanese, the stars of Kreatures are undoubtedly the animatronics: Hoegen's labour of love takes centre stage – cradled in the palm of an over arching robotic arm – and will be flanked by two macabre sculptures by the YBA Tristan Schoonraad. Nolan's animatronic mouth and stomach will unsettle wide-eyed revellers, and the animatronic movements (including a talking navel) will be controlled by Head as he DJs.
It begs the question what will the audience go home talking about– the music or the animatronics? Head says "The first time I saw a lip-synching puppet I was like 'What the hell?' I was totally blown away, they look totally different on screen. Physically seeing them and hearing them move is something else entirely."
Kreatures is reminiscent of a sci-fi film, and the idea that there's beauty in matching music and machinery has been around at least since Fritz Lang's 1927 movie Metropolis. "It's definitely like Metropolis; that's what we're achieving – moving in time to the music. To me animatronics are aesthetic, like modern art," says Hoegen, who reveals that the robot he's made for the night is worth tens of thousands of pounds.
The urge to shine a spotlight on a niche craft is also true of 3D Disco, which will be at Glastonbury for the second year running, and debuts at the Big Chill this summer. 3D Disco does what it says on the tin; it's a disco or rave – depending on your era – where you don 3D glasses and get down to anything from wonky house to rave classics, as visuals fly towards you.
Around five years ago there were three of us VJ-ing and we were moaning about how visuals always took a back seat to the music and was wallpaper in a club. 3D Disco came from those conversations and putting visuals at the forefront of the show and making the night more of a spectacle," explains the DJ and promoter Nik Barrera.
The VJ teams joined forces and formed the Novak Collective, a group of digital artists who hunkered down to create 3D content. Gradually 3D Disco took shape through trialing material in their hometown of Newcastle's Wax On night, and progressed to performing in Trafalgar Square with Calvin Harris.
The breakthrough for both Kreatures and 3D Disco came when the Smirnoff Creative Grants awards, which gives £5,000-bursaries to people with ideas for club nights with the "wow factor", provided the funds to make the pub talk a reality. "After we won the grant we were able to develop a 360-degree show and take 3D Disco in a bespoke direction, namely a dedicated environment in the round," explains Barrera.
Domestic and international bookings have since come thick and fast, and the flexibility of 3D Disco means they can operate in myriad situations: from in the round, to AV shows in clubs or bespoke footage made to order. The rise of 3D in popular culture, with films such as Avatar and Streetdance, has helped the cause. "We were developing what we did before these films were out but it's primed audiences and made it easier to pitch," offers Barrera.
The music policy of 3D Disco reflects this adaptability and is upbeat, and playful, like the experience. "Our music is really varied, we like to surprise and keep it fast-paced so we'll do house classics, UK funky, Baltimore club, kitsch bits and pieces which we've re-edited and snippets from Flash Gordon and Ghostbusters" says Barrera.
Like Kreatures, 3D Disco hope to take their craft to as wide an audience as possible: "We're hoping to develop our shows in planetariums because they're 360-degree spaces. Another aspiration for the dedicated environment is producing content for younger age groups. So you could have 3D Disco at a festival and daytime programming for kids," explains Barrera.
Above all both Kreatures and 3D Disco are about putting wonder and amazement back into nightlife. It's no surprise their emergence has come as the superclub era draws to a close; watching a bloke, superstar or not, playing CDs, or, worse, MP3s, is as much a spectacle as watching someone read their emails. But a robot dancing... well now you're talking.
